Friday, November 29, 2013

Non-Conference Games Involve NCHC TeamsPicks and News from @afiskness. It
was nice to see the Bulldogs bounce back last Sunday after a very lopsided loss
on Friday night to the Gophers. One thing that concerns me is the amount
of penalties the Bulldogs continue to take. In the Sunday game the
Bulldogs gave the Gophers plenty of special team opportunities to get back into
the game, but the Bulldogs were good enough on the penalty kill to get the win.
If the strong defense and goal tending remains constant and the Bulldogs
can find a little for goal scoring this team will play into late March.

This
Weeks games:

There
are no NCHC games this week but there are some teams in action.

Shillelagh
Tournament:Western Michigan vs. Northeastern: I like the Broncos in
this first game, the Huskies win/loss record is padded with wins against
Huntsville and Holy Cross. As for the second game I will go with a loss
to Notre Dame who as the host wins their own tournament.

Miami
@ Bemidji State: This will be a good test for the Beavers who will be
facing a Redhawks team that is as cold as the ice they skate on. This
will probably be a couple of grinder games, but I think the Redhawks offense
will shine and sweep this series.

St.
Lawrence @ North Dakota: The Saints travel to Grand Forks with 1 win in
their last 4 games meanwhile North Dakota is going through their early season
let down having just won 2 games in their last 8 played. The Saints have
beat some good teams this year and will likely find one win this weekend.
Split.

New
Hampshire @ Colorado College: The Tigers are not very good and the
Wildcats have been all over the board this season. This series looks like
it should be s Wildcat sweep, but I think the excuses will be made (elevation,
two time zones, body clock, etc.) and the Tigers will get a split.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Off the most recent split by the Bulldogs, this time at UMTC
Gophers, we have our latest Up, Down, Neutral:

Power play, a long time staple of the Sandelin Bulldogs, is
back after going four of seven opportunities in Sunday’s game. The test will be if it keeps up because the
game prior was a zero for seven effort.

Resiliency continues to be an up with this season’s UMD
team. On the road for six straight games
and finding a way to come back after Friday losses at UND and UMTC for wins
demonstrates the mental toughness of the young team.

Penalties! The
numbers are staggering after a slight down tick in the minutes, they spiked
again all the way up to 19.0 minutes per game and a tie for third nationally
for the most.

Still on the penalties, another major was logged this
weekend when Andy Welinski was shown the gate Sunday for facemasking. In the same vein, Caleb Herbert took three
minors Friday and according to Bruce Ciskie, he should have had to pay rent for
the space. It just can’t happen if the
team is going to reach even near their goals.

Split, split, split.
The splits get tiring, but at this point, they are good enough. As the season progresses they have to step up
to some sweeps to step up in the NCHC.

Goaltending at UMD is a “who’s hot” kind of deal. As long as one of them, A Crandall or
McNeely, is on, the team can always bounce back.

Bold prediction alert, UMD will end up 17-16-1 going into
the playoffs. The regular season is just
over one-third completed and the Bulldogs have five splits in six series. The remaining series was a Bulldog win and
tie against MTU.

The opponents so far have been good teams for the most
part. In some cases, like this last
series, a split is good. But in others,
CC and Ohio State, more than a split is expected.

But winning some and losing some inexplicably is a symptom
of a young team. So is the way they win
and lose. The scoring is coming in
streaks. Plentiful scoring in one game
followed by a drought and not necessarily in that order. It is not a first game/second game of the
series thing as UMD has a two game winning streak and a two game losing streak.

Up next is another weekend off and time for
Thanksgiving. The following weekend
brings NCHC league play to Duluth for the first time as Saint Cloud State comes
to town December 6 and 7.

Though UMD has a top ten penalty kill and the Gophers are in
the bottom for power play, you don’t

want to give that much advantage to the
home team. Additionally the more time
UMD spends in special teams, the more those few players are on the ice and the
third and fourth chill on the bench. In
cliché speak, it kills the flow of the game.

The Bulldog defense and goaltending have continued to be bright
spots for the team, but this weekend they are in a hostile arena against a high
scoring attack. Aaron Crandall will be
the center of attention. Crandall and
the rest of the defense corps will have to take this opportunity to put it all
together for 60 minutes of solid play to win.

Flying Freshmen. The good
and the bad. The freshmen are on a tear
scoring an average of 3.20 points per game.
The down side is finding the rest of the scoring to win games, or to
pick up the team when the froshes hit a slump.
We stand by our belief that successful teams have balanced scoring
across classes.

Picks by @afiskness.
The Bulldogs are beginning
to find some consistency. The defense and penalty kill looks strong, but
unfortunately the power play has only seen marginal increases and the
Bulldogs continue to take way to many penalties. If the Bulldogs can
find some discipline and stay out of the box, I would expect to see the scoring
increase.

This
weeks games:

Non-conference

UMD @
UMTC: The first matchup of these teams as non-conference foes. I
don't think there will be any change in the rivalry for the players and should
be two good games. The Gophers are the #1 team, but I think the Bulldogs
will get a split.

Denver versus
Air Force (home-home series): The Pioneers goaltending looks good this
year and even though scoring may not come as easy the Pioneers will get two
wins.

Western
Michigan versus Michigan State (home-home): The Broncos are the better
team in this series, but the home game for the Spartans should help them to
earn at least a tie. Broncos win and tie.

North
Dakota @ Boston University: North Dakota is starting slow again this year
and trip to Boston against the Terriers could be difficult. But the
Terriers just may be the most inconstant team this season in all of college
hockey. I will go with a split.
NCHC

Miami
@ Nebraska Omaha: The Mavericks are playing pretty good hockey right now
making this a tough series for Miami, but I think the Redhawks are a notch
above. This looks like a Miami win and tie.

Colorado College @ St. Cloud
State: The Huskies looks for real and will be competing for the
conference title. On the other hand the Tigers look like they
are in for a long season. The Huskies sweep.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Even though it has been a season of split after split, this
one marks a big step. UMD has struggled
with UND, especially in Grand Forks.

The main take away from the weekend that can be seen in both
games is more penalties leads to losses.
Each night were penalty filled affairs, but in each one team took
more. UMD took more penalties Friday
while losing and UND found the same Saturday.

With that lesson once again learned, here is the Up, Down,
Neutral for the weekend:

Resiliency shown Friday night to tie the game Friday by the
Bulldogs was refreshing to see. Even
though it was a loss, UMD did not give up.

Freshman scoring continues to be a staple of the team. On the weekend, freshman scored four of the
eight goals.

Penalties continue for yet another season to be an issue for
the Bulldogs. UMD is eighth in the
nation for penalty minutes per game, 17.7.
This weekend’s opponent, UMTC, is 54th with 9.5 minutes per
game.

Splits are OK, but it is difficult to know where this team
stands with their up and down performances.

The jury is still out about consistent offensive output. The problem is if the defense can’t keep the
score low, the team cannot count on the offense to pick up the slack.

Up next is the Gophers of UMTC at
Minneapolis. The Gophers are ranked #1
in the polls. Will it be yet another
split?

Friday, November 15, 2013

Back to conference play for the Bulldogs. It has seemed like months since their last
NCHC game, but it is only just short of one month…

UMD owns the last place in their new league mostly because
they have only played two conference games.
The loss to CC for their only conference win in six games didn’t help
either.

Getting back into the swing isn’t going to be easy for UMD
as they travel to a tough place to win, Grand Forks. The stats show that the Bulldogs should be
the better team here, but the cliché of throwing out the records and such
definitely applies here.

So for the sake of time on this game day, here is the stat
comparison:

Great to see the #1 ranking for the Bulldog PK. But then seeing the UND PK number tempers the advantage.

UMD penalty minutes are on the decline, a positive for a team that has been taking too many penalties for years.

Team saves is a solid number for both teams. The question still remains who will play in net this weekend and will it be the same for both nights.

Picks by @afiskness.
The Bulldogs need to
find more scoring which needs to come from the sophomores who are off to a slow
start. The defense has been solid all season and I don't know why that
would change unless some injuries pop up. I think this currently last
place in the NCHC Bulldog team has the makings to contender in the NCHC.

The
picks for this week are:

Wisconsin
@ Miami This should be a good series of Bi6 Ten versus
NCHC teams. The Redhawks are the better team in my opinion but they have
been inconsistent this season. The Badgers are looking to keep the
games low scoring. I think this will be a split.

St.
Cloud State @ Alabama Huntsville The Huskies will
go into the Chargers home rink and skate out with two wins.

Michigan
@ Nebraska Omaha This is another
good series Bi6 Ten versus NCHC teams. The Wolverines have
looked like a much improved team this year compared to last year. The
Mavericks have been very inconsistent so far and now face a tough
challenge. This looks like a split, but I think I will go with a win and
tie by the Wolverines.

Minnesota
Duluth @ North Dakota North Dakota has had some
struggles this year and the Bulldogs should be rested after a bye week.
This looks like a split.

Western
Michigan @ Denver The Pioneers have
had trouble scoring this year, but their goal tending has been pretty
solid. The Broncos have been very inconsistent this year making this
a guess as to what team is going to show up. I will go with the Broncos
getting a win and a tie.

Air
Force @ Colorado College This single
game on Tuesday puts a good Air Force team against #53 in the RPI, CC
Tigers. Are the Tigers really that bad? This game will give us more
insight. I say no with a Tigers win.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Road splits can be good and this one should probably be
categorized as such. But Ohio State is
struggling so much with defense this season should have been a feast for the
Bulldog offense. What is becoming more
apparent is UMD can be their worst enemy this season.

So for the Up, Down, and Neutral for the OSU weekend:

Freshman scoring.
Four of the top six point scorers are freshmen with the top two being
Alex Iafallo and Kyle Osterberg with six and five points respectively. As a side note, those two top scorers have no
penalty minutes.

Winning faceoffs.
Without puck control winning games will be difficult. Over the Ohio State weekend UMD won only 53
faceoffs out of 163. That is just shy of
one third of the time UMD has to battle for puck possession off the draw.

Sophomore slump watch.
Cameranesi and Farley have not been held scoreless, but their production
is

not what was expected thus far. Both players
have identical 1goal, 2 assists, 3 points.
After the sophomore slump Herbert endured last season, hopes are we are
not going down the same road.

UMD is off this weekend before embarking on a
trip west on Highway 2 to Grand Forks to take on North Dakota November 15-16.

Friday, November 1, 2013

For the second consecutive year, Minnesota Duluth will play
Ohio State finishing off a home and home two year commitment.

Last season the Buckeyes came into Duluth to start each team’s
season and a split ensued. Frankly both
teams came out in about the same place last year in regards to record and not
qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.

This year should be different when these two teams meet.

Ohio State has been a wreck in this early season. They can score goals, but the defense is so
porous, they just can’t score enough. Thus
OSU’s 3-3-0 record with wins against the likes of Robert Morris (2) and Bowling
Green.

UMD, conversely, has had stellar, almost record breaking,
defensive success this season. But at
times the offense cannot take advantage (literally on power play) and score
enough to win. It has been a season of
close losses and some big wins for the Bulldogs.